Infinite Stratos Plot Bunnies Collection
Chapter 13: Infinite Stratos x Fate/Grand Order Crossover Challenge
AN: I have been meaning to get this story plot idea out be the time of Da Vinci Event. However, I have been busy with all sorts of stuff - school, anime, and FGO - that I didn't really finish this story idea until now which is the Accel Zero Order event. I have been a huge fan of the Nasuverse and Fate series for a long time now. In fact, I'm a hugely obsessive Fate fan where I'm looking on FFN everyday for new Fate fanfic stories. I also play FGO daily and I have a collected a lot of powerful Servants including those waifu Servants that I love most. My recent new Servants are NP 2 Iskandar, Assassin EMIYA Kiritsugu, and Jeanne d'Arc Alter. I was so happy when I pulled both JAlter because she is one of my most favorite Saberface Servants in the game and I have made it my goal to collect every Saberface Servant there is in FGO. I almost have every Saberface in NA version of FGO with the exceptions of Lancer Artoria Pendragon Alter and Mordred. I cried tears when I got Nikola Tesla instead of Lancer Artoria Alter in the London banners. I won't roll for Mordred because I can't forgive her for what all the things she has done to my #1 Saber and waifu in all of the Fate series, original Arthuria Pendragon. As for Assassin EMIYA, I'm glad I have him since I wish to reunite the Emiya family together. I have NP 5 Archer EMIYA and NP 5 Irisviel, now I must wait for Prisma Castaway event to roll for Illya and then once I have her and Chloe, the family will be complete. I am content with the Servants I have now and won't be rolling for any other Servant on future banners. I will instead wait for the summer event to arrive so I can roll Saint Quartz for swimsuit Arthuria. I even created a forum where others and I on FFN discuss all things FGO, Fate, and Nasuverse related.
That said, this idea of a Fate x IS crossover story has been in the works for a while. I checked the crossover section for FSN and IS and to no surprise every single one of them has Shirou taking Ichika's place at ISA and that's pretty much it. None of the authors bother to try to flesh out Ichika's character development or include him in their Fate x IS stories at all. Heck, none of them even think to consider developing Ichika's character in the contexts of the Nasuverse and have him be involved or part of the Moonlit World. This story seeks to be the opposite where Ichika is the main character of the crossover story and has a major part to play in the Moonlit World. It was only because of FGO did a Fate x IS crossover story idea finally took form and shape. I had struggled over which Servants I wanted to belong to Ichika as a I wrote this story, but it had been a challenging ordeal as I have canon and unofficial ships and harems that I respect a lot and don't want to have a Servant forced paired with Ichika compared to other crossover stories that just have Shirou grow his already large harem with girls from other series. As much as I love Arthuria and all her versions, she ultimately belongs to Shirou and I am an avid Avalon shipper. While I didn't really like Sieg from Fate/Apocrypha that much, even I wouldn't break Jeanne away from him nor JAlter whom I also view as belonging to Sieg too. Nero, Tamamo-no-mae, and Altera belong to Hakuno Kishinami the protagonist of Fate Extra/Extella. BTW I prefer female Hakunon over male Hakuno. When I was trying to craft up Ichika's Servant team I originally wanted a Quick-based team but unfortunately the game doesn't support that meta and there isn't a single Caster Servant with a Quick NP. At best I have designed Ichika's team to be made up of mostly Japanese Servants although he would have other non-Japanese Servants.
I have worked to flesh out this story idea until I couldn't expand my creative imagination on this story idea any further. Anyone interested in adapting this story and making adjustments to it is more than welcome to do so long as the main focus character is Ichika and not another one of countless infinite OC/SI trash stories I see flooding FFN.
Plot Premise
Ichika was introduced into the Moonlit World and taught magecraft by a young magus child named Olga Marie Animusphere who made him her apprentice. When Olga use a spell to find out exactly what was Ichka's Element and Origin, she made a discovery of Ichika's Dual Origin that seemed most absurd that she called Ichika "a living hax" - "Throne" and "Heroes"; put together they make "Throne of Heroes". At first no one knew what to make of Ichika's Dual Origins until it became clear to him in a dream shortly after his Dual Origins was revealed to him. It turns out that Ichika was a living conduit that connected the World itself with a place existing outside of both the world and the time axis known as the "Throne of Heroes". His existence is similar to how Shiki Ryougi and Manaka Sajyou are connected to the Root of Akasha except for Ichika it is the Throne of Heroes. Every night Ichika would dream of beings known as Heroic Spirits and learned of their myths and legends as well as talking to them. Ichika even had the privilege to learn some things from them if they were kind or interested enough to teach them their skills or craft. For reasons unknown, Olga was made to leave and thus ended Ichika's apprenticeship early.
Ichika originally first summoned Heroic Spirit when he had been kidnapped by Phantom Task (PT) and used as hostage to get Chifuyu to forfeit her final match in the 2nd Mondo Grosso. In desperation, Ichika activated his magic circuits and used a Servant Summoning Ritual to summon a team of Servants to save him. One of the kidnappers had her IS on and a battle between an IS-user and Servants caused the place to be destroyed. The battle ended once Jack the Ripper used Maria the Ripper on the enemy IS user and ended her life. However, Ichika was close to dying from his injuries from being tortured by PT kidnappers. However, with quick treatment from Nightingale, Ichika was able to survive and recover enough. Ichika was taken to the 2nd Mondo Grosso tournament via horseback ride courtesy of Ushiwakamaru in the vain hope of preventing Chifuyu from forfeiting the match. However, it was too late as Chifuyu had forfeited the match and went off searching for him. Ichika would feel tremendous guilt from that event since then and suffered depression for a long time.
Olga appeared in his life again and recruited him to be a Master Candidate for Chaldea and finish Ichika's magus apprenticeship. Ichika disappeared from the Orimura home, leaving only a note telling Chifuyu "Good Bye". Olga's graduation gift to Ichika was grafting Runes onto his body that would allow Ichika to absorb mana and converted into prana, plus spiritual surgery to install artificial magic circuits inside him. The complications from the spiritual surgery supposedly left Ichika incapable of becoming a Master, which further worsened his depression. Olga was disappointed too as she saw Ichika as having the greatest potential out of all the other Master candidates and even planned on placing him on A-Team (aka the Ciphers). Ichika would be comforted by Mashu Kyrielite while he ponders his life's meaning and purpose that he was a burden to both Chifuyu and now Olga. The only use he had now was to serve as a connecting conduit to the Throne of Heroes to allow the other Master Candidates to summon their Servants, an important support role, but it was a role that made him feel useless since he would not be on the frontlines playing a proactive roll like the other Master Candidates. Further isolating Ichika from the rest of his Clocktower peers was the many versatile types of magecraft Ichika would use and practice, many of which taught to him from Heroic Spirits from the Age of Gods. Those who tried to get close to him only wanted to obtain the knowledge of magecraft from the Age of Gods, their fake smiles and pretend concerns led Ichika to shun and be suspicious of them, which in turn made him an outcast with the rest of Chaldea staff members and Master Candidates from the Clocktower. When Ichika was angered enough by some of the more immature, pretentious, snobbish, entitled Master Candidates and decided to make examples of them, Ichika lost control for a moment and became possessed by Medea, briefly becoming a Pseudo-Servant, and proceeded to attack them with Medea's powerful spells.
Olga rebuked Ichika's actions as the fight caused Chaldea some problems with some prominent and influential noble magi families, but none of it all mattered to Ichika as he continued to slowly heal himself from the complications of his spiritual surgery and study magecraft from Heroic Spirits in his own private room and workshop within Chaldea. From his development Ichika had formed two new abilities after that incident: the first ability being Shared Bond which working similar to "Install" with the Class Cards system from Prisma Illya where Ichika temporary materializes the weapons or NP conceptual power of a Heroic Spirit; the second ability being Possessed Self allows Ichika to be possessed by Heroic Spirit and become a temporary Pseudo-Servant. When the events of FGO began, Ichika was standing by as he was watching the Masters about to be Rayshifted when a bomb explored. Ichika rushed in to save somebody, anybody; despite his hard feelings for some of the Master Candidates, even he couldn't deny their vital importance to the goals of Chaldea. He got to Mashu and tried to save her when the duo was sent to Singularity F.
Major time skips, Ichika is back in Japan after having saved Humanity from the many extinction crises Chaldea faced, including Goetia and Lostbelts. Chaldea has become a fully-fledged independent organization after the Mage Association's schemes to return the World to the Age of Gods leading to the Lostbelt crises was thwarted. In a big show to prove its independence and stick it to the Mage Association, Chaldea moved its primary HQ from Europe to Japan. To the indignation of the Clocktower. The Holy Church and Atlas continued to maintain friendly relations to Chaldea due to the organization's goals of protecting humanity. Now Ichika who was made Chaldea's Vice Director was tasked with help Masters and Servants who chose to remain in the World settle down. The Emiya clan plus Shirou and his harem of Arthuria Pendragons settled down in Fuyuki City. Female Hakuno Kishinami's Servant team (made up of Extra/Extella Servants) was on vacation and currently on a idol tour across Japan, leaving Ichika in charge of Chaldea for the time being. Hakuno would be made the Director of Chaldea due to her vast experiences fighting HGWs in the Moon Cell and possessing Master-Servant compatibility that nearly rivaled that of Ichika. Sieg and his team remain in Europe operating a regional HQ in Trifas, Romania (location of the Great Holy Grail War in Fate/Apocrypha), while Ayaka Sajyou and her team would have settled in Chaldea's regional Western Hemisphere HQ in Snowfield, Nevada, USA (location of the fake HGW in Fate/Strange Fake).
Ichika returned to his hometown under the alias Ritsuka Fujimaru with the plan to take his high school exams and complete his high school education, though that was just merely one reason for returning. Ichika wanted to reward Mashu for everything she had done for him. His reward was giving Mashu a chance to live and experience what it was like to live a "normal" everyday mundane life. While Ichika and Mashu were on their way to take their high school exams, things followed the IS storyline and the two ends up in a room where there was a training IS. Mashu was pretty excited to see an IS for the first time but Ichika remained uninterested and unimpressed. After one has witnessed the power and miracles of Heroic Spirits, Demon Gods, Beasts, and countless other powerful entities in the Moonlit World - how could the power of an IS hope to compare to that? While Ichika place the IS in the closed form of a gauntlet on Mashu's arm, his curiosity led him to use Projection magecraft to scan the IS. When he scanned the Infinite Stratos's closed form in the shape of a gauntlet, when Core 001 sensed his presence, the IS activated and moved itself onto Ichika and materialized on him instead of Mashu. Ichika and Mashu tried to get the IS off of him, but too late three Infinite Stratos Academy staffers walked into the room and spotted him in the IS while he and Mashu were desperately trying to get the IS off of him.
Thus, Ichika would end up at ISA. Ichika would have to deal with the awkwardness of meeting Chifuyu again after his long disappearance and harem hijinks from the original IS harem. However, Ichika's heart could never be with them for he is always thinking about the Servants and his kouhai Mashu whom he holds dearly. The greatest challenge he shall face at ISA is adapting to a new means of fighting. All of his experiences in Singularities and Lostbelts have cemented his combat style around being a proper supporting Master such as healing and boosting his Servants. That is not to say that he would be defenseless if left on his own. On the contrary, Ichika could defend himself well thanks to his magecraft skills and combat skills taught to him by Servants. While Ichika could fight most cannon folder type enemies - Humans, Deceased, Fundamentals (aka Hands and Doors), some Artificial (Dolls, Homunculi, Books) - but he would only be able to handle a few handful of Demi-Humans. He would not be able to contend against Dragonkind Magical Beasts, and certain types of Artificial enemies unless he invokes Shared Bond or Possessed Self. With regards to Shadow Servants, it would completely vary as with some Shadow Servants Ichika could hold his own; with other powerful Shadow Servants he would need the help of Servants to win.
For all of Ichika's strength and power as a mage who is on the level of a Magician due to magecraft ability being tied to the concept of the Throne of Heroes, it wouldn't do him any good entering ISA as a student and IS pilot. Ichika never got any training or preparation to pilot an IS prior to entering ISA like all the other ISA students. Furthermore, he though a man would never be able to pilot an IS and since IS were completely irrelevant to his education as a magus in the Moonlit World, Ichika never felt the need concern himself with the IS. As such, Ichika would not only struggle in ISA from being behind every single ISA student, but he would completely be out of his element and natural environment as a prominently powerful figure in the Moonlit World as Chaldea's Vice Director and a Master with Servants. He wouldn't have the freedom to be able to perform magecraft as much as he wants at ISA due to the implicit rule of maintaining the secrecy of the Moonlit World from the mundane world. One would think that Byakushiki would be compatible with Ichika due to it possessing Core 001 that was once used by the Shiroshiki IS that was piloted by Chifuyu Orimura. However, such assumption would be further from the truth. Ichika's magecraft and his inner world that is the Throne of Heroes would serve as points of tension and conflict between Ichika and Byakushiki's A.I.'s Setsuna (and later the A.I. of Shiroshiki herself) over control in IS battles. Having fought alongside Servants in almost every battle Ichika had ever participated in, Ichika was mentally and emotionally dependent on the power of Heroic Spirits. It was a mindset that was forged from being Chaldea's first and primary Master during crises with Singularities and Lostbelts; it wasn't something that could be changed so easily for Ichika. The major differences Ichika had with Core 001 would lower his IS compatibility rating with Byakushiki and make it difficult for him to pilot his IS. The problem from Ichika's strained relationship with Byakushiki is further exacerbated when Ichika tried to initiate Shared Bond to use the power of Heroic Spirits while in an IS battle equipped in the Byakushiki
In his debut battle against Cecilia and her Blue Tears IS, Ichika had used Shared Bond to channel Oda Nobunaga's NP to materialize powerful flying musket rifles to even the odds against Blue Tears' Bits and turn the tide of battle against Cecilia. Victory was assured until Byakushiki canceled out Ichika's Shared Bond; Ichika was shocked to find out that his IS could negate his magical abilities and he once more was at disadvantaged against Cecilia. Ichika was vivid, having lost to Cecilia due to his own IS negating his own magecraft abilities. He was only able to salvage the situation by make it a close battle instead of suffering a complete defeat. Byakushiki would interfere many times in Ichika's battles against other IS whenever he attempted to use magecraft to give himself an edge in many battles with Rin's Shenlong, the autonomous Golem IS units, and Laura's Schwarzer Regen. Chaldea bought out Byakushiki's manufacturer company, Kuromochi Machinery Development (KMD), after Ichika had become an ISA student to better assist Ichika and his situation with Byakushiki and IS related affairs. Everyone thought that having Heroic Spirits who were genius inventors - Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Charles Babbage, Leonardo Da Vinci, etc. - would be able to modify and bend the Byakushiki more towards Ichika's will. However, to Ichika's dismay Byakushiki rejected all forceful modifications from the genius inventors to install other weapons and equipment. Ichika was distressed that Byakushiki had only one weapon, a sword, and nothing else. It turned out IS tech was a lot more complicated and IS Cores possessed a strong will of their own. It would take a great deal of time, but the genius inventors assured Ichika that given time they will eventually crack the secrets of the IS and force the Byakushiki IS to comply to his will. In the worst case scenario, they could just try to create their own IS Core from some of Chaldea's collections of Holy Grails. Under Ichika's suggestion, Chaldea bought out majority share of Dunois Industry, thus controlling the company and placing it under the control of Chaldea's European branch that is led by Sieg and his Servant team. It was through this acquisition that Chaldea obtains more data and info on IS tech. Plans are being made to have one of Sieg's Servants be made the French IS Representative.
The seemingly last straw came when Ichika was injured and rendered unconscious by the Silver Gospel. Chaldea determined that perhaps direct intervention would be required after all; they commence an operation to disable or destroy the Silver Gospel. Mashu and the rest of Ichika's Servant team, Solomon (i.e. Roman Archaman), and the genius inventors arrive at ISA's beach resort under the guise of being KMD personnel arriving to check on the status of Ichika and Byakushiki. Kiyohime stares at the IS canon harem and automatically showed her displeasure, sheer jealousy, and deep hatred at them - both for spending time with her "Anchin" and for letting him get hurt under their watch. Kiyohime was especially harsh towards Houki, wanting to hurt Houki for allowing Ichika to get hurt by not properly supporting him. Kiyohime had to be restrained, least she goes on a rampage and kills his ISA harem. An Interlude for Byakushiki occurs where Ichika wakes up in a dreamscape to Setsuna and Shirokishi. When asked why he wanted their power, Ichika responded that he doesn't need their power, only their compliance...to not hinder or burden him. The two A.I.'s note the enormous difference between the way Ichika treated them and how he treated his Servants. Perhaps it was because of the Servants' nature as Heroic Spirits that leads Ichika to respect them more as people. Ichika confirmed their assertions that he sees his Servants as partners and he have a strong bond and trust with them. However, the same cannot be said for Setsuna and Shirokishi. Ichika refuse to treat them as his partners nor trust them, but merely sees IS as equipment, thus the impasse between them and why his IS compatibility with Byakushiki and Core 001 was lower than it was expected. Furthermore, Setsuna and Shirokishi have a problem with Ichika being too highly dependent on his magecraft power and ability to tap into the power of Servants, to use their NP weapons and abilities, and rely heavily on his Servants to fight most of his battles. They wanted Ichika to rely more on his physical power or martial abilities instead just using magecraft or Servants to fight his battles, but Ichika contends that his ability to fight is heavily reliant on magecraft and his connected power to the Throne of Heroes.
A battle erupts in the Ichika's dreamscape when Ichika's Servant team including Mashu appear and Ichika commands them to attack the two rebellious IS avatars. Shirokishi is under attack by Ichika's Servant team while Mashu stayed by Ichika's side to guard and protect him. The battle was intense and would continue on until it was interrupted when one of Ichika's Servant and teacher, Scathach, invoked a ceasefire after she made eye contact with Shirokishi and the two came to an understanding of sorts. Scathach finally made Ichika face his real reasons for why he had such negative feelings and emotions for his own IS. His IS reminded Ichika of the time when he was at his weakest, when he was powerless and helpless, how he cost Chifuyu her deserved victory and glory. It was his biggest failure, shame, and embarrassment. Scathach told Ichika that taking out his negative emotion and hatred of past events towards his IS was wrong, but at the same time he should not blame himself for what happened that day. He was never at fault for what happened that fateful day. He couldn't change what happened in the past, the only thing he could do was move onto the present and hopefully make a better future. Ichika finally reconciled his differences with his IS and the darkness of his past. It would have been easy to just rage quit, discard Byakushiki and leave ISA and the whole IS related affairs behind him, but he would only be running away from his past. By facing his past, Ichika was finally able to forgive himself and move on from that traumatic event from his childhood.
Ichika finally woke up from his dream to Solomon and a sleepy Mashu by his side. Solomon explained to Ichika that he had Mashu and his Servant team dived into Ichika's dream to revive him and find out what was happening inside him. Hakuno also informs Ichika that the Representative Candidates went to face the Silver Gospel to avenge him, but they were losing badly. Ichika wants the IS team to withdraw so that Tesla, Edison, and Babbage can deal with the powerful enemy IS. Ichika persuaded his canon harem through radio to withdraw, he congratulated them on their efforts despite not being able to complete their original objectives. With his canon harem having withdrawn from battle, Tesla, Edison, and Babbage along with Ichika's Servant team were free to unleash their full power against Silver Gospel as there was no human lives at risk and Chaldea had intel that the enemy IS was autonomous and not piloted by anyone. They EMP-ed the battlespace to prevent anyone from remotely witnessing the battle between the Silver Gospel IS and Heroic Spirits. ISA sensor systems that had been tracking the Silver Gospel movements were taken down by the EMP, leaving ISA completely blind and unable to track the Silber Gospel. The tide completely turns as the seeming invincible Silver Gospel was beaten badly the power of Heroic Spirits, struck down from the skies down onto an island, it's wings damaged enough it can't fly and must fight a ground battle. Scathach ended the Silver Gospel's futile struggle by pinning it down with multiple projected copies of her spear and unleashed her NP attack Gae Borg Alternative. Her spear strikes true alright...except instead of hitting the IS Core (the heart of an IS) as everyone expected, it hits a human heart. It turned out that info about the Silver Gospel being an autonomous IS unit was completely false as there was a human pilot inside, the US Representative Candidate Natasha Fairs. (AN: What happens next is up to anyone wanting to adapt this story plot)
During "A Sextet Yearns to Be in Love" OVA the IS canon harem goes to visit Ichika's house. They find Ichika and several different other women at his house (Mashu and his Servant team). This is a chance for Ichika's Servant team to get to know the Representative Candidates and figure out how capable fighters they are as Ichika's cohort at ISA. In the second half of the OVA, Ichika is accompanied by Mashu and Kiyohime to the Shinonono shrine as Houki and her aunt prepare for the summer festival. While Ichika is alone with Houki at the festival, he was secretly being stalked by Kiyohime, whose hatred for Houki grows even bigger than before during the Silver Gospel incident. The festival happens to be attended by all Japanese Servants and the Emiya clan. Afterwards, all the Chaldea Masters attend a briefing where Ichika updates them on his situation at ISA. In the briefing, the Masters discussed their attempts to infiltrate ISA to better support Ichika as well as debating the merits and demerits of the Representative Candidates that romantically gather near Ichika to assess their usability as allies for Ichika going forward. Kiyohime was highly critical of the IS canon harem, but the rest of Ichika's Servant time were more fair and neutral in their personal assessments of the Representative Candidates. Ichika shoots down any suggestions of introducing them to Chaldea, Servants, and the Moonlit World. Ichika was insistent that his IS career would be brief; once he finishes his 3rd year high school at ISA, he would retire from the IS world completely and go back to being a full-time Master and resuming his role as Chaldea's Vice Director. He did not want to drag this IS friends into the Moonlit World especially Houki. Ichika also was opposed to Chaldea being involved in the IS world, viewing Chaldea buying out all of KMD and majority controlling shares and stocks of Dunois Industry as a temporary measure to support Ichika during his tenure as an ISA student. He wanted to leave ISA, but the other Masters had convinced him to just stick through his tenure as an ISA student for three years. Ichika decides that when he returns to ISA, he would have an Assassin Servant come with him to help watch his back and support him behind the scenes.
Ichika left the Masters' meeting to prepare for his return to ISA, but the meeting continued on and it would be revealed that the other Masters had their concerns for Ichika. Ichika was distorted at his core in his own way like few of the other Masters. The difference being that Ichika doesn't perceive himself as being able to live normally in the peaceful mundane world that he helped fight to preserve. If anything, Ichika was more comfortable living under apocalyptic settings where the world or humanity was in dire threat of annihilation or extinction. Ichika seemed to have felt truly alive during Goetia and Lostbelts than he ever did during his time at ISA when he was leading Servants into battle and commanding them as a Master. It is apparent that he can't function normally in a peaceful mundane world after being send to life-&-death battles and being cooped up inside Chaldea. This psychological mindset of Ichika's was just not healthy. Mashu who had been attending normal high school in a city that is a train ride away from ISA is worried about Ichika for his sake. It was noticeable to her that Ichika was actually wary of interacting with the mundane humans, putting up a warm face but one that is very bland and subtly lifeless around them. In stark contrast, Ichika was only ever lively and comfortable interacting with Servants and other Masters of Chaldea. The Masters realize that Ichika only ever truly care about Heroic Spirits and their Masters seeing them as friends and family, thus he is unable to sympathize or empathize with normal humans. A walking contradiction: he had fought for the sake of humanity, yet he does not value the lives of the faceless masses. Mashu noted this change in Ichika's perspective when he told her during the summer festival, he jokingly stated that after all he been through he would gladly forsake the lives of the many faceless ISA students he knows little about, the billions of faceless masses that mean little to him, and let them suffer and die in some world-ending cataclysmic disaster - such as a Singularity, Lostbelt, Gaia unleashing her human-killing beasts, or the arrival of the prophesied Promised Time when the Aristoteles (aka the Types from a Nasuverse story, Notes) shall arrive to end humanity - if it meant that Mashu, his Servant team, and everyone else at Chaldea would be alive, safe, and happy. While Mashu was flattered that Ichika would do anything for her, it was really scary how Ichika stated that he would let all normal humans die and that their lives mattered little to him. The Masters and some of their Servants are now concerned that Ichika is slowly losing his grip on the real world and is slowly becoming insane.
IS Season 2 starts off differently with the introduction of another ISA student from France. She introduces herself to the Jeanne d'Arc Alter, shocking Ichika at the sudden arrival of a Servant. JAlter's first official act as an ISA student...was punching Charlotte in the face, shocking the Representative Candidates and the entire school. Why did she do it? (AN: Because she's JAlter that's why) No seriously, it was because Charlotte reminded JAlter too much of Jeanne, her pure holy maiden Ruler counterpart, and that annoyed her. When Ichika asked her how she got into ISA as a student, JAlter sat Ichika to give him and explanation things that occurred behind the scenes. After Chaldea bought majority share of Dunois Industry, Sieg and friends kept Charlotte's father on as it's CEO merely as a puppet while they were the true rulers of the company. Marie Antoinette who was working inside the French gov't and through her connections got JAlter chosen to be the second French IS Representative Candidate. However, Marie did this in exchange for a favor with her allies inside the French gov't to run for office, for the French presidency to be exact. No one knew what happened, but Marie instantly became a popular candidate in the French presidential elections, leaving her rivals in the dust and if things are left to their own then Marie would soon become France's next president. Ichika could imagine the bodies of dead French Revolutionaries rolling in their grave at the thought of Marie becoming the next president of French Republic. Of the irony of fate itself, given how Marie's death lead meant the end of the French monarchy rule and led to the creation of French democratic governments. Another prominent change from IS canon is Kanzashi who actually has her Personal IS ready to go, as KMD is under new management and her Personal IS was worked on by the genius inventors to her specifications. Phantom Task's two attempts on Ichika's life and steal his IS would be foiled by Ichika's Assassin Servant hidden in the shadows striking when they least expected it, Jack the Ripper. Once Madoka reveals herself to Ichika and shows him her face, Jack would follow Madoka when she retreated from Laura's intervention at saving Ichika. Jack fought Madoka but was under Ichika's orders to not kill her. After wounding Madoka, Jack faded away and Madoka is unable to recall her attacker's face and any information she had on her due to the effects of Jack's Information Erasure Skill. Madoka makes her way back to PT, but unknowingly she was being tracked by an Hassan-i-Sabbah Servant tasked with gathering intel on Phantom Task. Ichika had Chaldea investigate her background when Chifuyu lied to him about him being his only relative. The case goes to Sherlock Homes to investigate the mystery of the Orimura's unknown past.
At some point, Phantom Task will receive support from the segments of the Clocktower consisting of blue-blooded noble magus families who are steamed that Chaldea chose to defy them and refuse to bend to their will. This is after the many times PT's schemes foiled and their forces defeated by the intervention of Heroic Spirits. An indication that something is wrong is when Ichika senses a number of Heroic Spirit copies leaving the Throne of Heroes not aligned with Chaldea being summoned into his World living in the era of the Age of Infinite Stratos. During the ratcheted shadow proxy war fought between Chaldea and the Clocktower through PT and ISA and other IS groups as proxies, Ichika would encounter a Heroic Spirit made to fight on the side of PT whose existence shouldn't be possible. In a battle between Ichika and his Servant team against Shadow Servants and corrupted Heroic Spirits on PT's side, one of the enemy Heroic Spirits he encounters an enemy Saber he recognizes as Shiroshiki, it's pilot in her IS unit and whose face was masked. Ichika refused to believe that Shiroshiki could ever be a Heroic Spirits and it stems from two reasons.
The first reason being that it's impossible for modern humans to become Heroic Spirits unless they were a Demi-Servant like Mashu or a Pseudo-Servant like Waver, Rin, Sakura, Taiga, and Shirou. The only other way a modern human could become a Heroic Spirit was to become one of Alaya's Counter Guardians like the two different versions of Archer EMIYA (OG and Alter) and Assassin EMIYA Kiritsugu had done. The second reason, one that Ichika is unaware of himself, is that Ichika was subconsciously barring potential human souls from entering the Throne of Heroes whom he feels are not worthy of being recognized or acknowledged as Heroic Spirits. The only people he cannot bar from the Throne of Heroes are Counter Guardians as they became Heroic Spirits through their contract with Alaya. Because Alaya is a higher being concept of existence compared to Ichika who is only human, despite his intimate connection to the Throne of Heroes, the Counter Guardians do not need Ichika's acknowledgement or approval to their status as Heroic Spirits to enter the Throne of Heroes. This stems from the first reason Ichika had to rationalize his belief that a Heroic Spirit version of Shiroshiki should be impossible unless its pilot became a Counter Guardian. After all, by the logic of Assassin EMIYA Kiritsugu, the IS wasn't anything special - similar to a firearm, any human woman could potentially and competently pilot an IS given enough time, training, and experience. Thus, the supposed miracle of the White Knight Incident could have been pulled off by anyone else who possessed an IS during the time of the White Knight Incident and not necessarily Shirokishi. Ichika firmly believed that there was nothing uniquely special about Shirokishi's pilot; that IS pilot just happened to be lucky enough to be chosen to pilot it and perform that miracle on that fateful day of the White Knight Incident. However, to his shock and horror, once Shirokishi's mask came off from being broken in a fight with his Servants, Ichika could not believe his eyes. Shirokishi's face looked exactly like Chifuyu and what's worse for Ichika was seeing her name displayed as he looked at her to determine her true identity that was confirmed by Chaldea's Ruler-class Servants present, Shadow Saber Servant: ORIMURA Chifuyu. In complete utter shock, Ichika was in denial and suffered a Puella Magi Madoka Magica styled despairing mental breakdown at this big reveal. It shouldn't have been possible; he would have sense her presence and entry into the Throne of Heroes if she was a legit Heroic Spirit. The problem is he wouldn't have been able to see her record in the Throne of Heroes when he is subconsciously rejecting modern humans like her from the Throne of Heroes.
Ichika for a brief moment lost the will to fight, suffering from due to his breakdown and denial of the cruel twisted reality in front of him. Madoka has ORIMURA attack Ichika while Madoka in her Black Knight IS was keeping Mashu tied up fighting her, but arrival of reinforcements in the form of additional Japanese Servants intervened to stop the Shadow Saber's attack. The conceptually impossible being that is Heroic Spirit ORIMURA now faces off against some of best Heroic Spirits Japan has produced and on Ichika's Servant team: Okita Shouji (the main Saber of Ichika's team), Oda Nobunaga (Ichika's second main Archer after Atalanta), Miyamoto Musashi (second main Saber in Ichika's team), and Tomoe Gozen (Ichika's third Archer). While ORIMURA and Madoka were being pushed back by the powerful Japanese Servants with home field advantage, Mashu rushes over to Ichika's side to snap him out of despair as she desperately tries to bring him back to his sense. Nightingale (Chaldea's #1 nurse and combat medic) comes up to the two and tells Mashu to withdraw with Kiyohime and take Ichika to safety as he could not properly command them given his current state of mind. They are informed by Solomon from Chaldea HQ that they detected additional IS heat signatures inbounded on their position. Kiyohime has a change of plans as she tells Shiki to take Ichika away to safety, that she and the additional Servants from Ichika's team would back her up to help her deal with the incoming interlopers. Nightingale had Ichika dematerialize his IS and then with Mashu took him away to safety from the battlefield. Behind Kiyohime are the additional Japanese Servants from Ichika's team: Ryougi Shiki, Asagami Fujino, Suzuka Gozen (third main Saber), Ibaraki Douji, Chacha, Minamoto no Yorimitsu (claims herself to be Ichika's "mother"). Unknown to Chaldea side however, the incoming IS belonged to the Representative Candidates who were deployed by ISA to investigate the circumstances of Ichika's unauthorized deployment of his IS and his battle against unknown enemies. Pity Houki, Cecilia, Rin, Charlotte, Laura, Tatenashi, and Kanzaski…unknown to them and the rest of ISA staff including Chifuyu and Maya, the Representative Candidates have been deployed on mission that would surely cost them their lives. It was a death trap plotted by PT with help from agents within ISA. When the Representative Candidates run into Ichika's Servants who perceive them as incoming hostiles, a bloodbath is surely to take place. The questions that remains are...whose blood shall be shed? Can an IS really stand up to the power of a Heroic Spirit? And lastly, whose bonds with Ichika is stronger?